NIH - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

The annual spending law for FY 2016 increases spending at the National Institutes of Health by 5.8 percent over FY 2015 levels and provides similar boosts to NIH institutes important to the physical sciences, including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

When House and Senate appropriators return from their summer recess a first order of business will be continuing their work on the FY 2016 appropriations bills. Among those bills is the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill that provides funding for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The House and Senate NIBIB figures are as follows:

House appropriators have approved the FY 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Bill. Yesterday’s action by the full Appropriations Committee marks the first time in six years that this bill has been approved and sent to the House floor.

A common theme at last week’s House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the National Institutes of Health was the impact that funding constraints have had on medical research. Although the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), one of 27 institutes and centers, was not specifically mentioned, the issue of overall funding for NIH was raised early and often during the two-hour hearing.

The Obama Administration has requested an increase of 3.1 percent in the budget for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) in FY 2016. Under this request, sent to Congress on Monday, the total budget would increase from $327.2 million to $337.3 million.

NIBIB is part of the National Institutes of Health. Overall NIH funding would increase by $1 billion, from $30,311.4 million to $31,311.4 million, a 3.3 percent increase.

Congress has completed the FY 2015 appropriations cycle with House and Senate approval of a $1.1 trillion bill providing funding through September 30, 2015 for all departments and agencies with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security that will be funded through early 2015.

On Wednesday this week, the House of Representatives voted to establish the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. Action now shifts to the Senate, which is considering a similar bill sponsored by Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS).

On July 18, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its Labor-HHS-Education funding bill for FY 2003 (S. 2766). This bill provides funding for the National Institutes of Health, including the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Senate appropriators would provide $283.1 million for this institute in FY 2003, an amount that includes both new money and some transferred funds. House appropriators have not drafted their bill yet.

The Bush Administration has requested an 8.4%, or $9.36 million, increase for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Under this request, the budget for this new institute at NIH would increase from $112.02 million to $121.38 million. The NIBIB was recently established, and is described as follows in its budget justification document:

Last year, Congress passed a bill establishing, within the National Institutes of Health, a new National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The new institute received start-up funding of $2 million last year, and this year received a healthy increase to $112 million in the recently- passed FY 2002 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill. President Bush requested $40 million in FY 2002 funding for the NIBIB.

The American Institute of Physics, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, advances, promotes and serves the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.

We are committed to the preservation of physics for future generations, the success of physics students both in the classroom and professionally, and the promotion of a more scientifically literate society.